Metro Briefing | New York: Manhattan: Protest Over Holocaust Skeptic

By Howard O. Stier (NYT); Compiled by John Harney

Published: October 25, 2004

About two dozen protesters chanting ''evict the Nazi'' rallied yesterday in front of the Upper West Side apartment building of a man who has questioned historical accounts of the Holocaust. Some of the two dozen or so demonstrators, who were watched by a similar number of police officers, -- said that the man, Michael Santomauro, had been holding meetings with his supporters in the building, on 72nd Street near West End Avenue. ''We have to take a stand on this hatred being brought into the community,'' said James Vrettos, 55, a sociology professor at Yeshiva University. Mordechai Levy, above, of the Jewish Defense Organization, said he organized the rally after hearing that Mr. Santomauro had held a gathering at a nearby church last month. A doorman in the building, Jay Roman, said that he knew of no meetings. Mr. Santomauro, who founded a roommate matching service in 1979, could not be reached for comment yesterday, but in an article in The New York Times in 2003, he called himself an ''amateur Holocaust revisionist.'' Howard O. Stier (NYT)